During the 2011 election campaign much was made of Labour’s working man roots, especially the miners. ¬†It seems that Labour has not only turned its back on the working man but has also driven one of its key strategists to work for the Oil and Gas industry. Jordan Carter ecstatically tried to break the news to his acolytes:

And Martyn Bradbury is alluding to some sort of putsch against Pagani on his little read hate-blog.

It now seems an open secret that in fact John Pagani has left of his own free will and accepted a role with NZ Oil and Gas.

Of course, Pagani isn’t there as a ‘working man’ but he’s going there as another lobbyist. ¬†What becomes even more interesting is that he is the third former Labour staffer to go to the mining/drilling industries. ¬†Mike Munro is working for Todd Corporation and Deborah Mahuta-Coyle signed on as a lobbyist for PEPANZ (the Petroleum industry’s lobby group). ¬†Technically¬†it may actually be four since Pagani is replacing another former Labour staffer Chris Roberts. Perhaps this explains Labour’s claimed change of heart on mining where they now share the same stance as National.

So what finally drove Pagani out (again)? Was it Mallard’s constant nitpicking over every word in every press release – only to then have a tantrum, go to his office and ring his media mates to bitch? ¬†Or was it the slow creep of the ‘gaggle of gays’ as they took over the Leader’s office? Word has it that Mold has even turned from being Shearer’s number one supporter to now being the ultimate fag hag to Robertson.

Shearer’s strain to decide whether to appeal to middle New Zealand and ‘Waitakere Man’ has now disappeared. May be Sio and Nash are right? ¬†May be Labour has lost the plot and got lost in the Jordan Carter like rhetoric. ¬†After all, how many people who have experienced the real world are left in the Leader’s corridor? ¬†All are too busy navel gazing, being terribly academic or are the ultimate beltway junkies. ¬†How is Shearer ever expected to succeed with advice coming from those people?

Shearer is now a lonely, invisible man. ¬†Who does he turn to? ¬†Shearer’s instincts will be to include his opposition in his tactics… the silly man hasn’t worked out that in politics having no one on your side is a dangerous position.

In three years they have only had three donations over $15,000. There are a lot of unions not contributing, and a whole lot of ungrateful bastards like Mike Williams who was made a very wealthy man through his Labour Party cronies giving him board positions.